


We We're 12; Do You Remember?

by tumblruserpailylove



Category: Pretty Little Liars
Genre: Angst, Crying, F/F, Hurt, Inspired by Skins (UK), Just accept it, Love Confessions, and here be sad about it idk, because honestly paige has been in love with emily since she was 12 okay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-30
Updated: 2018-08-30
Packaged: 2019-07-04 15:49:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,299
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15844473
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tumblruserpailylove/pseuds/tumblruserpailylove
Summary: So basically this is future set, but not too far in the future because they aren’t in college yet. It’s loosely based off the speech Naomi gives Emily in the finale of series 4 of skins and it’s basically just Paige telling Emily how much she means to her. Warning lots of tears





	We We're 12; Do You Remember?

**Author's Note:**

> (Just moving my old works from ffnet to here)  
> (I have not re-read or edited any of my old works so sorry if they're horrible)

Paige wiped a finger under her nose, catching the tears that had slid down her face and trickled along her nostrils. She drew in a deep breath quickly, sniffing loudly, and giving her head a shake. Her eyes lifted slowly and her brow creased in pain and confusion as she stared at the girl she loved more than anything in the world.

“Paige, I can’t” Emily said softly, her eyes flickering to her feet, unable to see the pain on the girl’s face. “I just…you hurt me. I don’t think I can trust you.”

“I said I was sorry” Paige whispered softly, her voice cracking to make the words barely audible. “I forgave you when you kissed Nate and you were sober. I didn’t even know there was alcohol in that punch until the girl was lunging at me and pressing her lips to mine. I stopped it immediately!”

Emily closed her eyes and turned her head away. The mental image of another woman on Paige’s lap, her lips against Paige’s, was too much to handle. It hurt too badly. “Who is to say it won’t happen again? We’re starting college, there will be parties, and girls, and booze. We won’t always be together. Can you promise me you won’t be tempted to not stop it the next time it happens?”

“Yes, I can” Paige nearly choked on a fresh sob but managed to get the words out. The tears were streaming now at an uncontrollable rate, her red eyes staring at Emily and begging her to look at her and see the truth in her words.

“How?” Emily asked in a shaky whisper, her eyes slowly lifting to Paige now and her head shaking. “How can you promise that?”

“Because I love you” Paige coughed out, clenching her jaw to try and bite back the new wave of tears she felt coming.

Emily just shook her head and looked back at her feet. Her heart hurt and her head was spinning. She didn’t know what was real anymore. All she knew was the pain was very much her only reality at the moment. Everything was so uncertain and she wasn’t willing to take the chance of feeling this sort of pain again, not from Paige. It was too much. Her eyes lifted after a moment, tears trickling along her cheeks, and her head shaking as a shoulder lifted in a shrug “Is love really enough?”

Paige swallowed the lump in her throat. She couldn’t believe Emily was looking into her eyes and asking her that. If only she knew how much she loved her. If only she knew just what her love had helped her accomplish. If only she had the slightest idea of what Emily meant to her, she wouldn’t doubt Paige a single second more. “Is love really enough?” She repeated the question with a laugh of disgust, as if it shouldn’t even have been asked.

Emily just shrugged and shook her head “People say I love you all the time but that doesn’t stop them from hurting each other.”

“I’ve loved you since the first time I saw you” Paige snapped, throwing a hand down to her side in frustration. “We were 12, do you remember? We went to the same swim camp and you blew everyone out of the water.” She shook her head and her eyes drifted around Emily’s face as the memory flooded back to her. “Everyone was so impressed and all I remember thinking was how incredible you were. I didn’t know it was love back then, but it was. I pushed it away, though, and it was easy because we didn’t have the same teachers or classes or friends. I would see you in the halls every now and then and I would smile but that was it because I was convinced you didn’t even know I existed. It was easy to convince myself I didn’t care about you because you just weren’t around enough for me to realize it.”

Paige took a breath and glanced right into Emily’s eyes, half her lips twitched into a smile and she gave her head a shake “Three years later and you were thrust into my face every day. We swam for the same team, we went for the same races, we even competed for the same anchor spots and it was torture.” She bit her bottom lip and looked down at her feet watching tears fall to the carpet. She pulled in a deep breath to try and steady herself before her eyes lifted back to Emily “It was torture because every day I spent with you was another day I drew closer to realizing how much you meant to me.”

She paused again and looked out the window in the bedroom, swallowing another lump in her throat. Her eyes darted here and there, not really looking at anything, but soaking in all that was around her. “So I bullied you and I pushed you and I tried to scare you away because it was the only way I could handle it. I hated the way you made me feel” Her eyes drifted back to Emily now “I hated how you were the only one to get me to feel anything at all. I was terrified of myself and my feelings for you and I thought just maybe if I was mean enough to you, you’d get sick of it and leave and I could go on with my life without you because at the time that sounded so much better than actually having to admit who I really was.”

“Paige” Emily whispered and took a step toward her, lifting her hand to reach out for the girl.

Paige shook her head and lifted her hand to stop Emily’s approach “And then the moment I finally started to accept the truth about me, about who I really was, you were there. You assured me I would be okay, that things would get better, and then you pulled me aside and sat me in that window seat and told me that you had been looking for someone like me.” Paige clenched her jaw again but it didn’t stop the tears from spilling down her cheeks.

Emily shook her head and drew in a deep breath, standing there feeling cold, shaking with the sobs that had taken over her body.

“You get me” Paige whispered to Emily through a thick fog of tears clouding both her eyes and her throat. “You’ve always understood me and supported me and believed in me. You saved me.” She nearly broke down at the last of her words and finally she managed to close the gap between her and Emily with a few steps before reaching out and pulling on her arm, bringing the girl into her embrace. She clutched to her tightly, as if she were the only thing that could stop Paige from spinning out of control and in reality she was. “That is why I know love is really enough. Because when I’m near you I am the best version of me and no one else in the entire world even comes close to bringing that out of me.”

“Paige” Emily wailed out as she buried her head against her shoulder, letting her body succumb to the sobs that had been silently jolting through her body. “I am so sorry. I never knew you felt any of that.”

Paige closed her eyes and felt herself melt into Emily. No one made her feel as safe or loved as Emily and she knew no one else ever would. She laid her head on top of Emily’s and nodded very slightly “I’m going to spend the rest of my life reminding you of how I feel.”

 


End file.
